Pantomime villain to genius - the Luis Suarez story

Luis Suarez

Cast your mind back to the beginning of the season. He was the pantomime villain. The very epitome of what was not right about football. Someone who wounded the young minds who watched and adored him on their plasma screens. Somewhere, that genius of a footballer inside Luis Suarez was being lost.

From alleged racial abuse to biting an opponent, Luis Suarez had been through it all in England, and in the summer was looking to Real Madrid as an option to get away from England. To get away to a country where the media and the public, in general, wouldn’t hound him wherever he went. Real would’ve gleefully taken him, but Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group and the manager, Brendan Rodgers realised that their project would be in vain if they had let go of their superstar. So, they came down hard on Real, kept Suarez playing for them, and the rest, as they say, is history.

There was a notion that Luis Suarez was a sort of evil genius. A man whose football inspired awe, but a man whose character left a different story to be told. But, one thing with Luis Suarez is that he wants to win, at any cost. And it is that desire, that hunger that has been channelised almost wholly to his football this season, and the results are evident for all to see.

For Liverpool fans though, there was a different problem about Suarez. Although, he was scoring goals, and creating chances for himself, was he being productive enough? Was he placing enough trust in his team-mates’ abilities? The answer would be a resounding no. Until last season, we saw a Luis Suarez who tried to do too much on his own. A Luis Suarez who tried to be the hero. But this season, the contribution in terms of goals is still there, but with a trusted partner in crime in Daniel Sturridge, he is assisting a lot more goals as well.

The Suarez of this season is a more complete player. A player who is in thorough control of himself. A player who is enjoying his football to the fullest. A player who is deadly when a chance presents itself. Lesser mortals would have been frustrated and agonized by the amount of flak that Suarez has had to take. But Suarez knew that he was getting riled because he was behaving in a manner demeaning of himself. This season, he has worked hard to keep his emotions under check, while still carrying that longing desire to win at all costs. And the results speak for themselves.

24 goals in 23 league games. Compared to 23 in 33 last season. And 11 in 31 the season before. He has obviously benefited from the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Sturridge, and much-improved youngsters like Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson around him, but it takes special ability to be scoring at an average of more than one goal a game. The other way around as well, the numbers are not too bad. Suarez has 10 direct assists this season, as compared to 4 last season and 3 the season before that.

Suarez has been impacted by Brendan Rodgers’s way of football. Rodgers gets this Liverpool side to play a breath-taking brand of football, which focuses on all 11 players, instead of an individual, while making use of individual talent to the fullest. Last season, one would often see Suarez throwing a tantrum when he wasn’t given the ball, or when someone couldn’t read what he was doing. Now, Suarez realises that football is at its best when played in harmony. The sort of harmony that he and Sturridge are dancing to the tunes of.

Brenda Rodgers’ man management skills have been applauded by experts and players alike and the forte of his has come to the fore in Suarez’s case. Rodgers has worked hard to re-integrate Suarez into the family. And he is now a more than happy member of the family. Not only that, he is also the silent guardian, the watchful protector who cares for the others in the family, and wants them to excel as well. Miraculously still, Rodgers has transformed the media’s accreditation of Suarez from pantomime villain to a genius whose skill needs appreciation.

Luis Suarez had a traumatic summer in 2013. But, this summer in 2014, he will be the leader of his country’s charge at the World Cup. The man whose shoulders will carry the hopes and prayers of an entire nation. With improved productivity, and caring for those around him, who knows; maybe, those prayers will be answered.